Casino Royale Poker Scene Breakdown
The Best Poker Scenes Ever In Film
Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name.Directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis, it is the first film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, and was produced by Eon Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Martin Campbell, director of the 2006 James Bond reboot Casino Royale, admitted there is a mistake in the film’s climactic poker scene.This was the third film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s book of the same name and was the first to see Daniel Craig in the role of James Bond, showing a more modernized, emotional side of the 007 agent early in his career.
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- Casino Royale Poker Scene.
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Casino Royale Poker Scene Breakdown List
Poker is a tense and exciting game. It’s about the cards you are dealt, sure, but it’s also about the intensity of looking across the table and weighing an opponent up. Do they have you beaten? Are they bluffing?
Film, and the art of storytelling, rely on the same emotions of tension and relief, conflict and resolution. Poker scenes are often a fitting way to convey these emotions between characters. The game intensifies what’s already there, and provides a perfect framework for the action.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best poker scenes ever in film.
Casino Royale
There’s no better place to start than with Casino Royale, the first Bond film to star Daniel Craig. Bond is tasked with defeating terrorist Le Chiffre in a game of poker.
The scene is not exactly known as being accurate in terms gameplay and etiquette, but still it’s a perfect marriage of film and poker. The blinds in the tournament have reached obscene levels ($1 million dollars) and Bond is facing a pot worth over $120 million.
After a round of checking, a final Ace falls on the river, completing many possible hands. For the uninitiated, the river is the final card dealt in a hand of poker. The first player goes all in for $6 million, the second calls all in for $5 million and then Le Chiffre raises the stake to $12 million.
Bond shoves for $40 million and is called. It’s an easy all in for Bond in the end, who is holding the best possible hand with a straight flush, yet still the tension is palpable. The victory shows the power struggle going in favour of the good guy.
The original novel actually featured the casino game baccarat, but the film switched this to Texas Hold ‘em, perhaps proof of the strength of the relationship between the card game and movies.
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Eleven is an award winning film about robbing $150 million from a casino vault. At one point, character Rusty is teaching a table full of clueless newbies how to play poker. Out of the blue, his old partner Danny Ocean joins the table, and the teacher soon becomes the student.
Rusty decides to take the opportunity to teach his team the art of bluffing, but ironically picks the wrong moment. He gets caught out by Ocean, who happens to be holding quad 4s at the time.
In terms of poker, it’s a simple lesson in when not to bluff. But in the film is more about establishing the dynamic between the pair, to let the audience know that Rusty can still be outsmarted by his partner.
Rounders
Rounders’ unforgettable scene
The 1998 film Rounders tells the story of fictional character Mike McDermott, played by Matt Damon. Mike is a law student and prolific poker player, but loses his entire bankroll one night to Russian mobster Teddy KGB, played by John Malkovich. He quits poker forever.
That is, until one day his friend ‘Worm’ gets out of jail and needs help paying off his debts. Mike takes up poker once again to save his friend from doom.
In the final scenes of the movie, Mike finds himself playing against Teddy once again. This time, he picks up on Teddy’s physical tells – how he munches Oreo biscuits when he has a hand, or splays chips everywhere when he doesn’t.
To be fair, Mike flops the top straight in the final hand, so there’s no real danger of him going bust. Still, he checks down the flop to allow a tilted Teddy KGB to spew away his chips, settling the battle and winning the money he needs.
The Cincinnati Kid
Going much a few decades, the Cincinnati Kid was one of the first, and is still considered to be one of the greatest poker moments in film. Eric Stoner, aka the Kid, is an aspiring poker beast who can beat nearly everyone around town.
He hears about the arrival of Lancey Howard, known as the Man, and wants to challenge him to a game. The Kid eventually goes against the advice of his friends and gets himself into a game with the Man.
This isn’t a hero story. The pair are left heads-up. In the final hand, the Kid a full house with Aces full of Tens. It’s a monster, but the Man has the Queen high straight flush, an even bigger hand.
In poker this is what is known as a “cooler” – a hand that you can’t really expect anyone to get away from. Yet in the film it clearly demonstrates what was always going to happen – the Man got the better of the Kid.
Molly’s Game
Jumping forward now to a much more recent addition to the poker film landscape, Molly’s Game tells the true story of Molly Bloom, who ran exclusive underground poker games with major celebrities and business people, taking a cut for hosting the games.
Molly’s Game has a lot of poker scenes to choose from, as the whole film is based around these games, yet once again the accuracy of the poker action is not essential to the narrative. What is more important is the tension and dynamics that are created between the players at the game, as well as Molly’s interactions with this world.
If we were to pick a hand, it would have to be the one between Harlan and Bad Brad. Harlan is the best poker player at the tables. He plays the odds and wins consistently. Bad Brad is new to the table and, as Molly puts it, Harlan doesn’t yet know that Brad is bad.
Brad makes huge bets and eventually Harlan makes the fold with a full house, probably not something that would happen in real life. Brad has nothing.
Bad Brad joins the tables in Molly’s Game
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The James Bond movie ‘Casino Royale’ has one of the most highly regarded poker scenes in movie history. It expertly reflects the tension of high-stakes gambling, but its plausibility has often been called into question. Here we take a look at both the influence of the iconic scene and how far it pushes the boundaries of credibility with the audience.
Daniel Craig’s debut Bond film certainly had an impact in further popularising the casino industry with the character imbuing it with a sense of glamour and cool. Whilst the various locations featured in the film offered audiences a glimpse into the style and prestige provided by the casino environment. The film’s wider influence in keeping the industry current has also been apparent in the growth of the best casinos online, with slots like Mission Cash at LeoVegas incorporating a Bond-inspired spy theme.
The poker showdown in the exotic locale of the ‘One and Only Ocean Club’ in the Bahamas, is perhaps the most iconic scene in the film, and also the most effective in delivering a sense of the thrill and mystique which modern casinos can offer to the audience.
For context, Bond was taking part in a ‘winner-takes-all’ contest with nine other players including the film’s main villain Le Chiffre. The character, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is in dire need of victory having lost $100 million through a failed investment. Meanwhile, Bond has been entered into the tournament by MI6 as they felt defeat for Le Chiffre would force him to seek asylum with the British government in exchange for inside information on his terrorist clients.
Youtube Casino Royale
Its controversy for poker enthusiasts and statistics nerds comes with the final hand where just four players remained. After the river is fully revealed as Ace (Hearts) – 8 (Spades) – 6 (Spades) – 4 (Spades) – Ace (Diamonds), the first two nameless characters both go all-in with respective hands of King-Queen (both Spades) and 8-8. This meant two extremely strong hands already with a flush and full house both in play, however, it was still well within the realms of plausibility.
Casino Royale Poker Scene
Le Chiffre, however, had an even better hand than both of these men with an Ace-6 combination giving him the superior full house. Confident in his hand, the Albanian banker raised the stakes to $12 million only to see 007 go all-in with an enormous $40.5 million. Having started with a 7 and 5 of spades (which only gave him a 12.3% chance of winning before the flop) Bond knew that he had an unbeatable straight flush at his disposal.
Casino Royale Movie
This certainly brings the scene into the realm of the fantastical as a straight flush can be expected to occur around once every 37,260 hands. In tandem with three other players piling money in because of their particularly strong hands, more than a few movie-goers may have been struggling to suspend their disbelief. Bond wins the entire pot as the last man standing, before high-octane action hijinks follow.
In the scene’s defence, it does stay within the rules of Texas Hold ‘Em poker at all times and gives a dramatic but accurate representation of the game’s dynamism, as a weak hand transforms into something special. Some may feel it undermines the credibility of the movie to too great of an extent, but after all, this is a James Bond film, and it wouldn’t be complete without superhuman exploits and incredible luck. Perhaps the writers felt entitled to borrow Bond’s (artistic) license to kill.